Components consisting of fibre-reinforced plastics are used to an increasing extent in modern aircraft construction. To produce components of this type, a large number of planar semi-finished fibrous products are layered one on top of another to obtain a fibre preform until a predetermined component shape is achieved. The individual reinforcement fibre layers can each have different peripheral geometries in order to produce preforms with an almost random surface geometry. For this purpose, blanks with a suitable peripheral geometry have to be separated with high precision from the planar semi-finished fibrous product on suitable automatic cutting mechanisms. Semi-finished fibrous products which are preferably used are woven fabrics, scrims or knitted fabrics with carbon fibres (so-called “CFRP semi-finished products”).
The (fibre) preform formed in this manner with carbon fibres, substantially following a three-dimensional shape of the CFRP component to be produced is introduced in the course of a production process into a mould, for example, which corresponds to the geometric shape of the CFRP component to be produced and is impregnated with a curable plastics material, for example an epoxy resin. Finally or simultaneously, curing is carried out while applying pressure and/or temperature, to produce a dimensionally accurate component (so-called “RTM process”, “Resin Transfer Moulding”).
In order to achieve as fully an automatic production of the fibre preforms as possible in the RTM process, a vacuum effector, for example, is used to draw up the separated-out blanks by suction, to lift them up and deposit them, for example in an RTM mould for the layered construction of a preform, such that in a final process step, impregnation with the curable plastics material can be carried out. The vacuum effector of the device is generally positioned spatially in a fully automatic manner by a handling device, in particular by an articulated robot arm which has a plurality of degrees of freedom.
Problems arise in the automatic production sequence it during the automatic cutting procedure in the cutting device, not all carbon fibres are completely severed. In this case, when an attempt is made to lift up the blank from the cutting table by the vacuum effector, disturbances in the production flow generally ensue because the position of the blank changes under the vacuum effector. Thus the exact spatial position of the blank is no longer known and the correct positioning thereof with respect to a mould is no longer guaranteed. In this case, provided that the integrity of the blank has not been damaged by being torn off from the CFRP semi-finished product, it is only possible to correct the position by a complex manual re-positioning.